It’s not quite what an Apple Car would have been on the outside, but the forthcoming Ferrari Luce looks a lot like it on the inside — and rather like CarPlay Ultra.
As soon as Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 to form his LoveFrom company with Marc Newson, the two were contacted by Ferrari. It then took until 2021 before a formal deal was struck, but now the results of that partnership are being unveiled with the Ferrari Luce.
According to Engadget, It’s still only a partial reveal ahead of the car’s full launch that’s expected in May. But while no details of pricing or availability have been announced yet, Jony Ive has been showing off the car interior he designed — and talking about the problems.
“It’s very hard, I’ve never worked in an area that’s so regulated,” said Ive. “Some of it’s great, because you understand why, and people’s safety is certainly important, but some of it drives you nuts.”
Ive has himself been criticized for pushing design elements such as thinness to extremes. In the Ferrari Luce, the company’s first-ever all-electric car, that familiar obsession with detail extends even to the key.
There’s an e-ink screen on the key, and as you insert it into a receiver in the car, the screen’s yellow glow appears to transfer over to the car.
The yellow segment is the key — image credit: Ferrari
Alongside that, there are myriad Apple-style touches, such as the absolute requirement that every detail has been considered. Rails that you may never notice hold the seats to the floor have been shaped and anodized.
The display is not the thing
Like any EV, there is a central display but Ive doesn’t want it to be the focus of the car. It’s a 10.2-inch OLED screen and it pivots to the touch, but Ive wants more tactile controls.
“[Today’s cars] are missing some things that we love about our old Ferraris,” said Ive. “It was very clear to us that we needed to figure out as many ways as possible to viscerally and physically connect to the interface.”
So there are vents, there are more 40 pieces of Corning Gorilla Glass surrounding the driver. There are also physical controls around the steering wheel, all because both Ive and Newson are car fans.
“Jony and I share a really, really deep interest in automotive things and vehicles,” said Newson. “Actually, I’d go so far as to say that that is probably a hobby of both of ours.”
The display is the thing
That central display features a glass volume control, and features solid, large switches. But it also displays information that changes depending on the driver’s needs.
Ive doesn’t want the 10.2-inch OLED screen to dominate the interior — image credit: Ferrari
In the few images shown so far, that display’s controls look like Apple’s CarPlay Ultra. It’s actually hard to be sure what is a display and what is a physical gauge around the steering wheel, but it all has that Apple look.
Yet while Ferrari was the first car manufacturer to adopt the original CarPlay, it hasn’t publicly committed to the new CarPlay Ultra.
Ferrari has not released any details of the Luce, and not even confirmed the expected May launch date. But whether or not this is the start of a series of Ferrari EVs, Ive says that he and Newson have learned a lot.
“At the end of a project, there are two products — there’s what you’ve made, and there’s what you’ve learned,” he said. “I’ve always been fascinated by what you’ve learned, and, honestly, we’ve learned so much.”
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